LARGO — Isaiah Howdeshell doesn’t mince words about what it will take to run down Belen Jesuit’s Marcelo Mantecon and Armando Cruz for a state cross country championship.
“To beat them, you definitely have to go through a ton of pain,” the Largo High School runner said. “I just have to go harder than anyone.”
He has already closed a lot of ground. Howdeshell finished 14th in the Class 4A state cross country meet last fall in 16:01.2, then placed second in the state 3,200 meters in the spring in 9:02.04, more than 20 seconds faster than his regional time. In his first cross country meet this season, he ran the 5-kilometer course in 15:20.0.
“I knew I could compete,” he said of the 3,200. “I have a ton of ability to carry that over to the 5K.”
The competition is about to get tougher. Largo is moving from Class 4A to Class 3A this season, which puts the Packers in the same classification as Belen Jesuit, the Miami private school whose runners have owned the class. Mantecon and Cruz finished last year’s state meet in 15:03.3 and 15:12.7.
“Belen Jesuit is serious about its cross country,” said Brent Haley, who has trained Howdeshell for three years. “For a month in the summer, they train in Arizona in the altitude.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have 12 kids win 22 state championships, and Isaiah is as dedicated as any of them. He maxes out his ability.”
That dedication is relatively new. Howdeshell is running just his second year of cross country, and he also kicks for Largo’s football team. He said he has made field goals of more than 45 yards in practice but is still waiting for his first attempt in a game.
“After football practice, I’d meet with him and he’d always do it,” said Haley, 85. “He’s a worker, I’ll tell you that. He once missed a training session, so he ran at midnight. I said, ‘Don’t do that anymore, it’s dangerous.’”
Howdeshell ran 50 to 60 miles a week this summer, mixing in speed and interval work. He has eased back to 40 to 50 miles now that the season has started.
His other edge may be everything he did before he ever ran a 5K. Since age 4, he has played soccer, T-ball, baseball, volleyball, football and wrestled — experience he said matters in a sport where “300 to 400 people are at the starting line.”
“You’re racing, not going for a time,” he said. “You need to get in position.”
He settled on cross country, he said, because “I just realized this is what I’m best at. Every day, my goal is to make me the best I can possibly be.”
He would also like to arrive without warning.
“They just think they’re better than everyone,” Howdeshell said of the Belen Jesuit pair. “I want to come out of the darkness and surprise them.”
Quick hits
Osceola’s Futch throws out first pitch at Rays game
Stefan Futch spent nearly three decades in a baseball dugout. On Aug. 29, he got a turn on the mound.
Futch, who retired after almost 30 years as a baseball coach and remains a math teacher at Osceola High School, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Tampa Bay Rays game.
So, the obvious question: Did he throw a strike?
“It’s like telling a fish story ... the fish was this big,” Futch said. “Heck yes it was a strike.”
The honor capped a coaching run that spanned generations of Osceola players, many of whom went on to play at the college level or simply learned to keep their hands inside on a breaking ball. Futch still walks the halls at Osceola, where he trades lineup cards for lesson plans.
The pitch, for the record, remains unreviewable.
Waddington throws six TDs in Countryside rout
Cam Waddington set a Countryside school record with six touchdown passes in the Cougars’ 50-0 win over Hollins on Aug. 28.
The second-year starter has Countryside off to a 2-0 start, and the shutout gave the Cougars a defensive complement to Waddington’s night through the air.
Countryside next returns to district play as it looks to build on the strongest start of Waddington’s tenure under center.
Warriors stay perfect, climb to No. 1 in state
Calvary Christian’s volleyball team is 7-0 after a week that tested the Warriors twice
They answered both times.
Calvary beat Merritt Island and Naples First Baptist, both defending state finalists, to extend its unbeaten start. The Warriors are ranked first in the state regardless of class and 21st nationally by MaxPreps.
The start builds on a national ranking that had Calvary at No. 24 entering the season, and it comes with the FHSAA’s new Open Division looming.